


There Shall Be None

by dome_epais



Series: If It Takes All Summer [3]
Category: The Pacific - Fandom
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-21
Updated: 2012-07-21
Packaged: 2017-11-10 10:17:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/465179
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dome_epais/pseuds/dome_epais
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He remembers, at the worst times, that he’s home. He remembers that he’s safe here, and he’s supposed to feel safe.</p>
            </blockquote>





	There Shall Be None

**Author's Note:**

> Title from President Lincoln's First Inaugural Address: "There needs to be no bloodshed or violence; and there shall be none, unless it be forded upon the national authority."

Eugene gets the letter from Snafu three days before he’s set to arrive. Maybe _letter_ is overstating it; it’s a ticket receipt in an envelope, no words or anything else. But it means he’s coming, and Eugene has to start explaining a few things to his mother.

“Mother,” he starts, and winces at the tension in his own voice. It’s the exact wrong way to begin this kind of conversation.

Mother looks up sharply, sets her teacup down with a crack. Father’s making a house call, so it’s just Eugene and Mother for lunch, and Laney bustling about with the dishes, pretending not to listen to the house gossip.

Eugene knows that his tone is too serious, too much like when he decided to sign his papers and go off to war. He hadn’t meant to scare his mother like this. “It’s nothing bad,” he assures her, fingers fiddling with his spoon. It turns over fitfully in the soup, making some thick wet noise. He didn’t show his nerves like this before he came home.

Mother blinks hard, swallows her mouthful of tea. She clears her throat and reaches for the sugar bowl, keeping her hands busy even though she’s already treated her cup the way she likes. “Whatever is on your mind, Eugene?” she asks primly.

“I invited a friend to stay,” he tells her in a rush. Careful glancing up to judge her reaction, he adds, “for Sidney’s wedding. A friend from when I was over there.”

“Well, that sounds lovely,” Mother says, the way Southern women always react to news of guests. Eugene heard his grandmother say the exact same thing at unexpected guests around the holidays.

But he doesn’t want it to be an inconvenience, or something Mother has to put up with. He explains, “His name’s Merriell Shelton, he’s from New Orleans. We were on the same mortar team and he made sure I knew how to take care of myself over there.”

She flinches at any details of his time in service – she really took it to heart when he left, not like her pride over James. Eugene used to be her baby boy, she keeps saying. She doesn’t like to think about what happened over there, and Eugene can’t blame her. She sips her tea, mouth sour at the wrong taste. “He sounds like a nice boy.”

“Well.” Eugene takes a spoonful of soup that’s getting cold, thinking it over. Snafu, a nice boy. “Well, he’s a military man. Don’t get your hopes up.”

“I see,” she says. Something makes her reach out, lay her hand over Eugene’s on the table. A whiff of her perfume reaches him, the same as it’s been all his life. “He’s welcome here. You know that.”

Eugene nods at his soup. He remembers, at the worst times, that he’s home. He remembers that he’s safe here, and he’s supposed to _feel_ safe. But he spent years halfway around the world, where he couldn’t think of his mother’s perfume at all, even in his dreams. And he knows he’s going to go write down this feeling to see if he can exorcise it.

He can’t wait for Snafu to get here.


End file.
